Anderson family

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The Anderson family is a group of professional wrestlers, a fictitious extended family largely consisting of brothers and cousins. It started in the Minnesota area in the late 1960s with a tag team called The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, consisting of "brothers" Lars Anderson and Gene Anderson (the only actual 'Anderson' of the original group). Later versions of the Crew included "brother" Ole Anderson and "cousin" Arn Anderson in various combinations with the original two. In total, the four original Andersons won over 11 different tag team championships together across the country. Several modern tag teams have taken names similar to the Minnesota Wrecking Crew as an homage to the group.

In the 1980s, Ole and Arn allied themselves with Ric Flair, a Minnesota native who they claimed was another cousin of the family, and formed the famous wrestling stable The Four Horsemen. The stable was a major influence on professional wrestling in North America, creating the blueprint for future groups such as the New World Order, Triple Threat, and Evolution.

Ole, Gene and Arn ran tryout camps for prospective wrestlers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, "stretching" several future stars, including Al Snow.

Other wrestlers claiming the Anderson heritage popped up on the independent circuit in the 1990s. These include Pat Anderson, Rocky Anderson, Karl Anderson and C.W. Anderson, who has gone on to moderate fame. Gene Anderson had a son, Brad, who began wrestling in 1988. Ole Anderson had a son who wrestles under the name Bryant Anderson.

WWE wrestler Ken Anderson changed his ring name to Ken Kennedy, to avoid confusion with the Anderson family (as well as the former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback of the same name), despite Anderson being his actual last name.

Another WWE star was born Steven James Anderson, but his family name changed to Williams when he was adopted by his stepfather in early childhood; he would achieve fame as Stone Cold Steve Austin. He is not related to any member of the kayfabe Anderson family.